On Tue, 12 Apr 2005 03:57:29 GMT, Peggie Hall wrote:

wrote:
I am delving into an area where I know almost nothing I admit.
However, should that stop us?
OK, it seems that tolet technology for boats is well developed with
systems available with nearly harmless discharge (if'n they could just
get rid of the nutrients). On land, building sewer line infrastructure
is a serious expense but the alternative is the lowly septic tank. We
all know that septic tanks near shore are bad but running sewer lines
is prohibitevely expensive for many semi-rural areas.
So, could boat toilet technology be applied to houses with septic tanks
with the intention of reducing bacterial contamination of our bays
without running sewer lines?

Except for composters, not really. The discharge, treated or not, still
has to go somewhere....and if it doesn't go into a sewer or a septic
tank, there's only one place left: onto or into the ground. I don't
think your neighbors would go for that.

Having had a farm with a septic tank, I can confirm the septic tank isn't
a classical "holding tank", as might be found on a boat..
In practice, the tank fills rather quickly, (think 1,200 gallon capacity), then
a pipe at the top of the tank leads to a drain field, where the liquids
percolate into the soil. The solids (sludge), stay in the tank, and must be pumped
out every few years, depending on the number of people in the
household. In ten years of living alone, mine never needed pumping out.

A proper septic tank bubbles and boils, (Peggie can explain the process), and
a lot of the solids are converted to liquid. People every so often flush a product
to make sure there are plenty of the proper "bugs" present. People who
use septic tanks soon learn not to use laundry bleach, which kills the
bacterial activity.

Before approval is given for a septic tank, several test holes are dug to
perform "perq" tests. I've seen a number of drain fields which weren't done
properly, and they become soggy, smelly messes. That's generally why
towns won't approve septic installations...not enough room.

In short, all the liquids from a septic tank wind up in the soil sooner or later..
The good news is that it only takes 20 feet or so of sand to completly filter
liquid sewage. But unless the soil is exceptional, quite a bit of room is needed
to make a proper drain field. Mine consisted of three "fingers", each 150 feet
long. After two years, you'd never know they were there....just part of the pasture
again.
Norm B